2009 – Crime, loss, election, adaptation – January 7, 2010

ARCATA – It wasn’t the best or worst of years. No overwhelming milestones were achieved, nor huge disasters suffered.

But 2009 was newsy as usual in Arcata, and here’s some of what went down during the decade’s second-to-last year:

• January 6 A backpack full of tens of thousands of dollars in cash abandoned at the Veterans Hall Thanksgiving Dinner goes unclaimed, probably because of what police says is evidence of drug connections.

Sandy Giuntoli, who studied under Luther Burbank, passes away on January 4.

The United States of America sues Arcata and Eureka over The Youth Protection Act.

• April 8 Farmers’ Market bedeviled by vehicles left on Plaza Saturday mornings.

Los Bagels celebrates 25th anniversary.

Three men are sought in connection with a Bayside Road armed invasion of a grow house, Scott William Boileau, Jason Earl Stockey Dodge, Samuel Frederick Ruchte.

• April 15Attempted McKinleyville home-invasion marijuana robbery results in gunshot wound. Suspects drop victim off at Mad River Community Hospital and flee.

A missing man, Laurance Whitlatch, is found dead by suicide in Arcata Community Forest. Recovery personnel have a difficult time removing the large body from the steep ravine in which it was located.

Geronimo Garcia pleads guilty to vandalism, gets 79 days in jail.

• April 22 Foster Avenue extension approved over fierce opposition by some area residents.

Forest Management Committee visits acquisition sites off West End Road.

Tea Party protesters and Penny Poll participants hold simultaneous Tax Day events in front of the Arcata Post Office. Little to no communication takes place between the two groups, both of which ostensibly espouse fiscal responsibility by the government. One angry man of uncertain political leanings calls Arcata Eye “piece of crap rag,” promises to organize a boycott. A Tea Partier tries to calm him down.

Unknown suspect breaks into Bayside Grange the night before a scheduled breakfast and vandalizes food, rifles the suggestion box and cuts him or herself on the broken window.

Police Log: Rabid fox is dispatched in upper H Street.

Blue Lake Rancheria applies for gravel mining permit on Mad River.

Hundreds gather for annual 4/20 marijuana celebration in Redwood Park. The next morning, Parks Department workers take out truckloads of trash. Heaps of butane cyclinders from a hashish-making project are also discovered left behind in the woods.

• August 5Danco clears vegetation and camp-infested Creek Side Homes site on the bottoms.

Courtyards At Arcata hold neighborhood Watch Festival.

John Toste is called before Planning Commission to explain violations of his Conditional Use Permit by storing multiple U-Haul trucks and trailers at his Gas-4-less station at Alliance Road and Spear Avenue.

Drug Task Force and APD take out alleged cannabis grow and hashish factory on Charles Avenue. Seizures include 92 plants, 30 pounds of wet leaves, 22 pounds of ground-up marijuana and 13 pounds of hash. The raid is filmed by a production crew and is later featured in the A&E TV special Intervention: Pot City USA.

• October 7 Arcata Plaza Cam is restored on the Stillman Building at 9th and H streets. aracataplazacam.com

Sunny Brae Middle School is named a 2009 No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon School.

APD and DTF take out grow house on Beverly Drive, confiscating marijuana, hashish, psilocybin, LSD and two handguns plus ammunition.

Nicole Quigley memorial service draws mourners to Boyd Road one year after the nine-year-old’s death due to reckless road racers driving her mother’s SUV off State Route 299.

• October 14 A vehicle and bicyclist collide at 11th and J streets with the cyclist head striking the windshield and creating a pretty spider web pattern of cracks. Since the biker was wearing a helmet, she and the driver hug and go their seperate ways.